The KT Rolster team B was formed after the team A was
formed. With the recommendations of Vitamin, the former core of StarTale
players Ryu, Score and Mafa formed the basis of a team that would quickly
become one of the most feared teams in the scene. Since their successful debut
at Champions Winter, the line-up has since then undergone some changes. KakaOwas moved to Team A in order to make room for inSec and Ragan was released tomake room for ssumday. With these additions, the consensus opinion around the
scene was that KT B became extremely stronger as a result and they may be thedbest team in the scene right now in-terms of skill and form. This season of
Champions will show us if KTB is indeed befitting of the title “Best team in
Korea” and they will look to live up to the expectations by being the last ones
standing come Summer time.

Generally speaking, KT B was a team that’s loved to play amid to long game against all opponents during the last season of Champions. This was due to the fact that only the top
lane would play extremely aggressive so that there would be either a kill for
or a kill given to the opposition. The bot lane of Score and Mafa would serve
as the epitome of passivism often being content with just farming and only
grabbing kills when there would be a perfect opportunity. Thus generally, the earlyemphasis for the jungler is given to the top lane and if the top lane is able
to get first blood, then the top lane is basically left alone for KT B whilethejungler goes to gain other advantages. With the addition of inSec and
ssumday, this style has still remained but the level of aggression seen fromthe team generally has increased in order to accommodate for inSec’s level of aggression.
This season, it will be interesting to observe the team colours of KTB, whether
they would become an aggressive team or remain the same as before remains to be
seen.

Team Strengths

Strong tank line

The strength of KT B is usually generated by their tank line
ofssumday and inSec. Unlike other teams however, inSec is usually the one
playing the role of the off-tank damage dealer and ssumday is usually assigned
the role of pure tanker. Regardless of their given roles, these two players
excel at what they do and they serve as the engines of KT B going forward inthe game. Both of the players are highly skilled and highly aggressive which
suits them perfectly for the role of tank. In a team fight situation or evenduringlaning, you can often see ssumday or inSec going in aggressively to
initiate or trade. Often cases, this works for the better of the team as the
high level of aggression causes the opposing team to try and peel the tanks off
their carries. Situations like these is also a testament to the ability of
inSec and ssumday to farm or get enough
kills during the laning phase that they can become significant threats
once the mid game arrives. Having a solid tank line also helps out a carry like
Score who is usually not in the position to do the most amount of damage but
given the room to free farm by the tanks, Score can do a decent amount of
damage for the team to come out ahead. Going into the new season of Champions
look for the dynamic inSec and ssumday top/jungle duo to carry KT B’s matches and
look for this dynamic duo to also make the highlight reel on a weekly basis.

Strong mid game

If Sword was the team who excelled at the early game and
Frost was the team who excelled at the late game, KT B is a team that excels at
during the mid game. What KT B do exceptionally well after the outer towers go
down is roam in order to find kills on the maps which can lead to objectives. The
center of attention during this period is none other than the mid player Ryu. When
Ryu plays a high mobility champion like Evelyn, Khazix or Diana he will aggressively
look for kills once laning phase has ended. This aggressive roaming added to
the incredible skill combination usually displayed from players like Mafa,
allows this team to have strong skirmishes and engages. If it does get to the
point that a strong mid game can translate into a decent lead it is not often
that KT B squanders the lead rest of the way usually playing a slow methodical
game until they can finish the game. This is why it’s crucial for the KT B team
not to have a disastrous early game so that they can take advantage of theirgreat mid game once the power spike hits with levels and items. The addition of
ssumday and inSec will only strengthen KT B’s dominance in the mid game and
should teams not be able to find an answer to deal with this dominance, they
will have a tough game ahead of them.

Well rounded players

When you think of KT B, the first thing
that comes to mind is how well rounded their team is. I’ve already mentioned
the strength of their top and jungler but the rest of the team is not too
shabby as well. If you listed the top 3 players in each position, it’ll be hard
to argue with inserting each member of KT B in the top 3. This means that KT B
is probably the only team in the KR scene not to have a player who really fallsbehind his colleagues in terms of relative skill level. This of course doesn’t
mean that each player is equally skilled but it does mean that the players can
rely on each other and play as a true team. This is also one of the reasons why
KT B is good. If a player like ssumday goes with a pure tank build, he will
obviously lack the damage to impact the game but because he understands that if
he does he job by initiating and taking aggro, he can trust his teammates to deal
all the necessary damage for them to win. Same goes for inSec who usually tends
to build more damage oriented items compared to tank items knowing that ssumdaywould be able tank. The philosophy applies to the damage dealers as well while
they will build items according to need, they will tend to build as much damage
as they can in order to complement their front line. And all the members of the
teamare supported by Mafawho can definitely make great plays and shine as
bright as the rest of the team with great CCs and great saves.

Team weaknesses

The question marks

Even a team who’s known to be without a weak link definitelyhas several question marks going in. Ssumday is definitely an impressive player
and has risen as one of the best top laners in a short amount of time but he
makes many little mistakes which haven’t been highlighted too much yet. Ssumdaygenerally is not a great cser and he does have a tendency to miss out on some
cs. In addition, he has moments of misplay when he does a wall flash or a wall
dash and if he does this during high leverage situations, it could very well
signal a loss for KT B. InSec also has his hsare of issues to iron out.
Sometimes when you watch inSec, he seems to be so caught up on making a play
that he over commits and that gets him into a bad situation. This is definitelythe result of playing on a team like CJ where he was expected to carry every
game but on a team like KT B, he must learn to tone down on his over committing
and aggressive play style in order to meet the rest of the team at a happy
medium. Ryu is usually a consistent player every night out but as it was seen
during last Champion’s Winter semis, Ryu can have moments when he has a mental
breakdown. It was clear by the emotion displayed on his face that he really
didn’t have a way to deal with this mental breakdown after getting dominated by
Ssong and this was one of the reasons why he played so poorly in both sets. Scorer
is a player praised for not dying and having a godlike KDA but as it stands, he
should never be in the discussion for the best ADC because he simply doesn’t do
enough damage during team fights. Score has the opposite play style of someone
like PraY who will not mind dying if he can pour out the most amount of damage
hecould for his team. Recently, Score has shown that he’s willing to get into
fights but without the impeccable positioning of PraY or the mechanical skills
of other top level Ads, it will be interesting to see if Score can adapt to a
new playing style. As for Mafa, he doesn’t have a glaring question mark about
him but you can usually notice that in lane, the bot duo doesn’t really get
ahead of the other duo. While this is mostly due to Score’s tendency to just
farm, Mafa also has to share the blame for being the lane partner.

Team fight ability

One of the worries that a KT B fan can have while watching
this team is their team fighting ability. As it was displayed during their
match against GG, KT B can struggle in even fight situations or even when they
are just slightly ahead if they face a team like GG. This was observed in their
loss to Frost when a bad team fight at mid lost them the whole game. Granted
these two teams are probably the best in the world when it comes to teamfighting but the fact that KT B is behind them by a decent margin makes it
difficult for the team to play for a true late game where the game would be
even for a long period of time. If KT B wants to win the whole tournament this
time around, they will definitely need to beat a team who will be better than
them in team fights. Time will tell if they have remedied this problem but if
KT B really wants to live up to their namesake of being the best team in Korea,
then they better show us that they can be good at every aspect of the game.

Key Player: ssumday
(Top)

As mentioned previously, the KT B team’s strength really
originates from the top lane and it trickles down to the other lanes in a
butter fly effect style. If ssumday can continue to play as he has been
playing, then there is no doubt that he’ll be a force in the top lane and that
in turn will help all the other lanes but should teams figure out how to play
against him and exploit his little mistakes, KT B may look a lot more
vulnerablethen they may seem.

Season Expectations

KT B is definitely one of the favourites going into the tournament
and they should easily place top 4. However, anything can happen during the
course of a tournament and should KT B run into a team like Blaze in the knockout rounds, they may have to wait until they can be crowned the champions of
Korea.

When the SC two giants IM decided to start a LoL team from
the former members of Team OP, there was high expectation that this team would
continue the success of Team OP. However until the recent win at Sao Paolo, the
IM LoL team had never reached a meaningful finals stage and they have thus far
remained a huge disappointment. Their failure to succeed was quite perplexing
given the fact that their team was composed of highly talented individuals. All
the fans of IM are still waiting for that magical day when all of the talent on
this team will start to click and the team will finally be able to play as if
they were a team instead of playing a soloq game. Perhaps this season is thatmagical season when the team finally plays like a team and IM will finally be
able to achieve something in the OGN Champions tournament.

The team is headlined by the famous player Lilac who used to
make a name for himself with his solid play in the top lane but when Cornsaladjoined IM in order to preserve the seeding from Team OP, Lilac was asked to
move to support where he played subpar. Lilac was then moved back to top where
he wasn’t able to recapture his old self and now he’s being asked to play
jungle (his original role on IM) with the departure of Ring Troll. It’ll be
interesting to see if Lilac can finally shine one more time in his natural
position and for a player who’s been asked to sacrifice so much for the team,
he really deserves a chance to shine. We will see if Lilac can turn back the
clocks to one year ago and shine during this year’s Champions Spring like hedid during last year Champions Spring.

Team Strengths

Solid play from the
bottom line

The bottom duo of Paragon and Lasha have been the anchors of
the team ever since Lasha was brought in to replace the former IM support Livy.
Even when the team does terribly, this
duo was seen to do well and when the team is doing relatively well, this duo
can usually carry games. A travesty for both these players is that because they
play on a relatively weak team, they are usually overlooked but these two
players may be the most underrated players in the scene right now. Paragon is a
player who has really suffered from not having a good support or a good tank
line to initiate and peel for him for a long time but when given the chance he
can be that guy to carry his team and he really has solid play all around while
being exceptionally good at sniping things with his Ez ult (GG Froggen). Lasha
is probably one of the best Zyra supports in the scene along with kkinsh and
while no one may talk about him in the best support KR discussion, he has quietly established himself as one of
the best if not the best player on the IM team. With a new look team and an
inexperienced top laner, the bottom duo will have to perform as they always
have and try to remain relevant in the game regardless of how the rest of their
team are doing.

Addition by
subtraction

During recent times, there was a change to the IM line-up
with Ring being removed from the team and Smeb being added to the team from
their second team. This could potentially go in favour of IM because I have
always felt that Ring was never a really good player after he was let go by
MiG. Ring would never make great decisions as a jungler and he to me really was
only good when he played Lee Sin. Despite his level of play, Ring has always
had many followers (due to his glorious hair…) but he didn’t have the play to
back it up. While his replacement Lilac may not be that much better than him,
the team probably could benefit from getting less attention because of a single
individual. In addition, if Smeb can perform better than Lilac in the top lane,
then the whole ordeal will work better for the team since Lilac can play the
tank roll much more proficiently than Ring can coming out of the jungle.

Strong laning

IM is a team that’s best known as the team of hard throwers
but for someone to throw a game, they need to have a lead to begin with. Perhaps
the most frustrating situation with IM is that they are quite skilled when it
comes to laning and rarely you see IM losing terribly during this phase. This
is a testament to the amount of individual talent on this team. This can
definitely be an asset for the team going forward. With the season 3 changes,
gaining an advantage in the lane has garnered much more emphasis compared to
season 2. While laning is not the only part of the game, being able to gain an
advantage is definitely a nice thing to have. Should IM ever look to press
their advantages after laning, then they will definitely be a force to be
reckoned with.

Team weaknesses

Shallow champion pools

IM is probably the team with the shallowest champion pool in
the tournament. While Smeb hasn’t been in the competitive scene for a long
time, he’s only played 3 champions so far and Lilac is also a question mark
with his champion selection as he just recently switched into the jungle role. Elsewhere,
MidKing has mainly played Jayce, Ryze or TF without having played the popular
AD bruiser picks. Even their bottom lane
only really play the current traditional champs and they have never shown the
ability to play something very unexpected unlike the other bot duos. As a
result of this shallow champion selection pool, IM is generally more rigid in
their strategies and they are not able to have a strategic advantage over the
other teams in terms of picks and bans. However now that they have a true
second team who can scrim with them at a competitive level, the IM first team
can look to improve tremendously from practice and improve upon their shallow
champion pools. By doing so, their team will benefit greatly in the long run in
all aspects of the game.

The league of throws

The one feature of IM that frustrates their fans the most is
that they often gain a lead on their opponent only to throw it away slowly
until they lose. This is the sign of a team that lacks a true shot caller and
as a result IM often play the game as if it’s a soloq game. More often than
not, you can see IM wandering around aimlessly during the team fight phase without
getting any objectives. This allows the opposition to catch up on the gold
differences. In addition, IM tends to engage in team fights when their whole
team would not be there or a stray member of their team would be caught out causing
them to lose objectives and causing this reverse snowballing. It also doesn’t
help that IM’s team fighting is subpar compared to other top tier teams and all
of their late game weaknesses usually cumulate to them losing grandiosely (against
paiN, Millenium, Blaze). If IM can control their uncontrollable urge to start
throwing, then they might actually pose a challenge to the top teams in the
league but if they play like the IM we love and adore, they’ll remain as the
most disappointing team in OGN Champions history along with Najin Shield.

Lack of a real
strategy

Another problem that the “lower tier” teams exhibit is that
because they aren’t as proficient on many champions, they are not able to make
strategic picks and thus lack a real strategy behind their team compositions. It
has been shown time and time again that games can be won and lost during the
pick and ban stage. For IM, you usually
do not witness a game when they take make a clever strategic move during the
pick/ban stage. The only thing that could be said about IM is that if they’re
able to get champs that they know how to use well or if they can get the “OP”
champions in the patch, they succeeded in their picks and bans. There’s
definitely a limit to this because even if there are OP champions in current
competitive play, there are ways to counter these OP champions and if a team
knows that IM will go for certain champions, they can definitely find a way to
bait those picks and dismantle them. With the addition of a second team, IM
will need to theorycraft and improve upon their knowledge aspect of their game
as well so that they can have some depth as a team.

Key Player: None

The reason that there is no particular player who needs to
step up his game in order for this team to succeed is that this particular team doesn’t need a
single hero to succeed. IM will require a full team effort to show that they
can play as a unit and not act as if it’s another game of soloq they’re
playing. Every member of the team will also need to become smarter in their
playing and if they are able to accomplish all this, they will definitely be
able to be a great team (this team nearly knocked out Blaze last year).

Season expectations

Given their recent form and the fact that they have shuffled
their line-up recently, I would have to rate IM as the weakest team in the
tournament being only better than AhQ. That
being said, group B is definitely the weaker of the two groups and IM have a
chance to advance if they can get a game off from the top teams in the group.

After the devastating loss against MiG Frost during the inaugural
season of OGN Champions, many fans were voicing their dissatisfaction against
MakNooN and his costly throws that caused the team to lose games. The head of
the Najin corporation did decide to remove MakNooN from the Najin e-mfire team
but knowing MakNooN’s talent, he decided to give MakNooN a second chance by
letting him form a team which would suit his Do Dive playing style better. The
end product of MakNooN’s search was what is now known as Najin Sword. In their
early days, Najin Sword was known as MakNooN’s one man show who would love to
dive the opposing team when given the chance and be flamboyant in their playing
style. They were also a team who were known to be good in the lane but if you
stalled against them, you could almost guarantee a victory. This was definitely
the case until Najin Sword had a match with CLG.Eu, a team that was known to be
one of the best in the world at dragging games out and winning those games. After
their loss to CLG.Eu, Sword was a completely different team and with their new
found improvement, they were able to beat Blaze twice en route to a place in
the season 2 finals an impressive feat considering the team was only formed
before the Summer season of OGN. After the Season 2 championships, the Sword
team improved further and they were able to win OGN Champions Winter in a dominating
fashion. During this season of OGN the champions, Sword will be out to defend
their title as champions and they will look to once again triumph over their “lol
classico” rivals en route to a victory.

Team Strengths

Much improved late
game management

Ever since the aforementioned CLG.EU game, Najin Sword ‘s ability
to manage late game situations has improved significantly. There are several
reasons for Najin Sword’s improvement in their in-game management. The most
important reason is the number of high level competitive matches that this was
able to have in short amount of time and all of the experiences cumulated
during that time. Many teams who are able to beat an established team during
the laning phase don’t lack mechanical ability what they usually lack is the
decision making which allows them to press their advantages and end games. When
experience allowed the members of Sword to finally learn how to team fight at a
high level and snowball their advantages by performing objectives, Sword became
one of the most well rounded teams in Korea. The combined strength of Sword’s
aggressive laning with their improve late game was too difficult for anyone to
handle last season. It remains to be seen if Sword can still remain as the most
balanced team in Korea for the upcoming season with their formidable laning
phase and late game since they will be challenged by the old favourites CJ
Entus Blaze & Frost but they will be fielding challenges from new
powerhouses like KT B.

No longer a one man
team

When people think about Sword, the immediate reaction is for
people top think about MakNooN. In recent times however, the team’s focus has
shifted from MakNooN to other members of the team. PraY is a player who is
still not a household name outside of Korea but PraY is definitely one of if
not the best ADC in Korea at this point and time. What makes PraY such an
amazing ADC is his impeccable positioning in team fights which allows him to
deal the maximum amount of damage without being killed by the opposing tanks. With
signature champions like Kogmaw and Twitch, Sword can always count on PraY to
fill a hyper carry role to win the game. In addition to PraY, Ssong has
definitely improved tremendously ever since his introduction into the league
scene. During the early days, Ssong (along with watch) was seen as liabilities
for the team and when he was able to carry a game, people would be surprised
more often than not. During last Champion’s Winter however, Ssong was able to
carry games after games with his amazing mechanics and he was becoming the top
priority target to shut down for the opposing teams instead of MakNooN. Ssong’s
playing has improved so much that when teams face Sword, they are forced to ban
TF, Evelyn or Kayle, the 3 champions that Ssong excels at. With the emphasis now being on other members
of the team, Sword no longer crumbles if you just shut down MakNooN in a game.
In fact in recent matches, teams have been able to control MakNooN but Sword
has demonstrated the ability to win games with an ineffective MakNooN. Even
without the aggressive roaming that we are used to seeing from MakNooN, Sword
now finds a way to win games and this is definitely a testament to the team’s
growth in ability.

Fast adaptation to
foreign strategies

Whether it’s because MakNooN keeps up to date on foreign tournaments
quite frequently or for other reasons, Najin Sword has been one of the fastest
adapters to new metas in the Korean scene. This fast adaptation to new “OP”
champions or item builds has allowed Najin Sword to gain an advantage during
the last season of Champions especially in the finals when they benchmarked GG’s
tactics to dismantle Frost. Being able to play a new playing style in a short
amount of time is definitely a daunting task especially if it involves learning
new champions to work out at the competitive level. On the other hand, playing
against new styles is an even more difficult task for the opposition as they
may never have had the chance to prepare against it. However, with new comers
showing they too can adapt to the new metas, it is uncertain if Najin Sword’s
fast adaptation can remain their unique strength in the upcoming champions.

Team weaknesses

What happened to
MakNooN?

After the winter finals, Sword has competed in numerous
tournaments but in almost every single match they’ve had, MakNooN was being
outclassed by almost every top laner. This is partially due to the fact that he
was against a 2 v 1 match-up for teams not wanting to go against the PraY/Cain
duo but even given this fact, he did much worse compared to the other top
laner. One reason for this could have been that after he won the finals, he
hasn’t practiced as much as before and given his tendencies to make decisions
when the game doesn’t go too well for him, it wouldn’t bode well for him if his
skill level has deteriorated. Another reason could have definitely been due to
the MakNooN scandal that has surfaced after the winter finals ended. It’s clear
that pro players are often checking on the fansites to see what their
supporters thought about them and when MakNooN saw the community being quite
negative about him, he could have become disappointed and lacked his usual
confidence going into matches. The other reason could have been that all of his
contemporaries have now caught up to him in terms of skill level or even
surpassed him but this is hard to believe since this was a guy who displayed
his dominance not too long ago. Whatever it is that’s ailing MakNooN, he must
sort them out and go back to being MakNooN. Even if his team is not as reliant
on him anymore, this is still his team and he still has quite an impact on his
team with his playing. Sword better hope that MakNooN recovers fast else they
may not be as dominant as people think they are.

Inconsistencies of
Watch and Ssong

It is true that during the Winter season, this duo of Ssong
and Watch has shown considerable growth as players and they have shown the
ability to carry their teams when they need it. However, they still show that
from time to time, their playing is not as consistent as the team’s bot duo. Ssong
especially is the most noticeable victim to inconsistent playing largely due to
the huge gap that exists between his good days and bad days. When you watch
Ssong on good days, he can be an indomitable force in the mid lane being able
to single handedly carry his team to victory from the brinks of defeat (Game 2
against LGD and entire set against KT B of Champions Winter) but when he’s not
playing well he’s usually the reason that his team loses (games against iG). Ssong will need to bring his
best every night out in their group because all of the mid players in the group
have the potential to carry their team to victory on any given night and with
MakNooN being in the state he is in right now, Sword will definitely need Ssong
to carry their games along with PraY on a nightly basis. The inconsistent playing
of Watch is quite peculiar. On his good days he is definitely a great junglerbeing able to make ganks and also being able to make great decisions during
team fights but on bad days it just seems like he’s lost, he makes terrible
decisions and his movements get read by the other team quite easily. Having
more of a support role compared to a carry role, Watch will need to play well
to be able to support his carries from doing the maximum amounts of damage
during team fight situations for Sword to be successful.

Weak early game?

For a Sword team which used to be known as the strongest
team in Korea bdfore the 20 minute mark, it was surprising to see that in their
recent matches, they actually fell behind quite a bit in all of their matches
before turning it around with super human efforts in team fights and through
overall good late game management (creep pushing, objectives, baron fishing
etc.). It is peculiar to see however, that the team who was best known for
being so strong and aggressive in the lane has lost their luster. It is also
troubling that when Sword faced teams who were considered below their level,
they were able to recover from falling behind early but when they faced a team
like iG who were equal or better than them in skill level, they were snowballed
against and lost their games quite lopsidedly. If Sword wants to compete with
teams like KT B, Blaze and Frost they will need to go back to their Champions
Winter ways when they dominated during the laning phase because their team
fighting or late game management is still not on par with a team like Blaze or
Frost. It is also a big loss for a team to have one of their biggest strengths
being turned into one of their weaknesses. We will be able to see if Najin Sword’s change
in playing style is a temporary ordeal or not in the coming days.

Key player: Ssong
(Mid)

Even though this team is still considered MakNooN’s team,
the shift has now definitely changed from MakNooN to players like Ssong and
PraY. Ssong will need to recapture his dominant and consistent self from the
Winter season playoffs for Sword to have a chance at the first ever repeat in
the OGN Champions tournament history. On his good days, Ssong may be the best
mid player in Korea even ahead of the likes of Ambition and Easyhoon and he’ll
have a chance to prove that when he faces against them in his group. With
MakNooN’s performance being worrisome, the burden will fall on Ssong’s
shoulders to give his team a hope for a win in each game they play.

Why Ssong needs to be in top shape

Team Expectations

Being last year’s champions, it is no secret that they have
a target on their backs. While their recent form is worrisome, I have no doubt
that they will make it out of their group but should they not place 1st
or 2nd, they may be forced to play against a team like Frost, KT B
or SKT T1 which may give their team some trouble on their way to the finals.

One
of the oldest and most decorated team in Korea, CJ Entus Frost are no strangers
when it comes to competing in tournaments and being successful in them. Having
made to every single finals on a LAN tournament with the exception of IEM
Katowice is impressive considering the fact that the LoL scene changes at a
rapid rate and despite the fact Frost has found a way to win each and every time.
Being so successful, it is no wonder that this team is the most renowned team
in Korea with a huge following both positive and negative. All the popularity
aside, Frost has seemingly lost a step after the season 3 changes were implemented
but even in their weakened state, they were able to grind out wins until GG
showed the text book example of how Frost can be beaten. NJ WSD then deployed
the exact same tactics as GG did in order to dominate Frost in the finals. Since
the finals loss, Frost has only competed in the IEM World Championships where
they were able to beat GG this time around en route to losing an all CJ Entus
final. With more than enough time to adapt to the new season 3 changes, we will
be able to see if Frost can regain their dominance and remain as the most
consistentprogaming team in the history of LoL.

Team Strengths

Every member on the team is a carry

Frost
is a unique team in many ways but one of the things which stand out the most for
this team is that no particular emphasis is placed on a single member of the
team to carry a game. In the top lane, Shy usually draws out a minimal of one
or even 2 targeted bans against him and even with these bans, his champion pool
is large enough that he can carry using the unbanned champion that is
available. Shy what contributes to his team on a nightly basis is his excellentcsing ability and carry potential as the game transition from mid to late game.
RapidStar in the mid lane is one of the most aggressive mid laners in the LoL
scene. While he may fall behind the enemy mid lane in terms of cs, RapidStarmakes up for this through aggressive roaming and gaining kills. Thus if the
game is going awry for Frost in the early going, look for RapidStar to make
plays along with CloudTemplar to turn the game around. CloudTemplar, the
jungler has carried countless games with his famous Shen and his greatest
strength is being able to make good decisions on the fly especially during
counterganking situations and late game situations where his game management
can often give his team the advantage. The support player MadLife is often
called a god for his high mechanical ability and playmaking abilities (Blitz,
Ali). Despite the fact that MadLife has shown signs that he may be human in his
recent form, he will still be counted on as a reliable force in the bottom
lane. Finally the new member Hermes has demonstrated on MVP Blue that he has
the high level of mechanics to be a late-game carry threat. Adding to this fact
that Hermes has a wider variety of champions in his arsenal compared to Woong,
it will be interesting to see what Hermes can offer for the team as a new
carry. With all of their members given specific duties along with the potential
to carry while performing their specific role, it won`t be a surprising sight
to see a different member winning the MVP each game.

The incredible and mysterious team fighting
ability

When
you watch Frost’s matches, some moments during the match can sometimes perplex
you. At first sight, it may seem that Frost is not doing anything spectacular
and making flashy plays in team fights but somehow, they manage to come out the
victors in team fights. One such moment was during the season 2 championship
finals in game 1 where CloudTemplar seemingly engaged into the whole TPA team
by himself when Frost was behind. Somehow Frost was able to win the team fight
and win the game. In terms of pure team fighting ability, Frost is definitelyone of the best teams in the world if not the best in the world along with
teams like GG. One of the reasons for their strong team fighting is that every
member on Frost knows their role very well during a team fight situation and
they are often very confident going into every team fight if they’re even or
even slightly behind. In addition to
this, Frost is a very communicative team constantly talking amongst each other
to check cool downs and their positions to see when they can engage and when
they should disengage. A lot of the credit for this goes to MadLife especially
because while CloudTemplar makes a lot of calls and discusses what Frost should
be doing, MadLife usually the one to give the final say on what the team should
or shouldn’t be doing. Knowing that Frost can pull out miraculous team fights
can also limit the strategies that the opposing team can prepare against Frost.
Unless the opposing team feels that they can go into 5 vs 5 team fights and
continually come out ahead, they must find a way to obtain a large advantage
during the laning phase or through skirmishes which may or may not work for
them. Overall, Frost’s incredible team fighting is definitely a wonder to
behold and a scary phenomenon for the opposition to go up against.

Cold Blooded

The
final strength and perhaps the aspect of the game that Frost excels more than
anyone in the world may be their high mental strength in game. Mentality is a
rarely spoken aspect of the game but just like a normal sport, it has an
immense effect on a player’s performance. As such, it is not a coincidence that
Frost has the best win rate in blind pick matches and it is also not a
coincidence that they can win games even if they fall behind in the early game.
Each member of Frost is rarely seen to be nervous and it shows in their
playing. One well documented game in which the members of Frost did saytheywere mentally shaken was their game against TPA due to the crowd being largely
biased against them for the infamous Woong cheater debauchery. CloudTemplarstated in an interview that the crowd’s reactions were definitely affecting the
members and it translated into a bad performance for them. Aside from that
particular game however, members of Frost usually exercise good judgement which
allows them to play the game with minimal mistakes. Team Frost’s never-say-die
attitude combined with their wealth of experience in high leverage situations is
what makes them deadly in tournaments especially during the knock out stages.

Team weaknesses

Weak early game

Out
of all the world class teams in the world, Frost may boast the weakest laningphases and early game play. There are several reasons for this weakness. One of
them as mentioned is that Frost likes to take the game into the mid-late game if
the skill level between the teams is relatively even since they have the confidence
that they can beat any team in the late game situation. Another reason related
to this is that the team composition of Frost used to be almost always a lategame team comp where the team would synergize best when they were all together.
The problem with this of course is that with the dawn of season 3, the emphasis
on a strong lane phase has grown considerably which led to the exponential
increase in the exposure of Frost’s weak laning. In season 3, it wasn’t simply
enough to survive the lanes and that transition still remains to be an issue
for Frost. The level of success that Frost can achieve in the upcoming season
against teams like KT B and NJ SWD will definitely depend on the solution to
theirlaning problems. If not, a repeat of last year’s finals is sure to ensue.

Inconsistent plays of RapidStar and
CloudTemplar

During
the Winter season, the two players who failed to impress the most wereCloudTemplar and RapidStar. After the season 3 change which saw a host of nerfsto RapidStar’s main champion pool, he did not adapt well to the change and thus
digressed in his performance. RapidStar’s failure to play a champion such as
Kayle led to Frost using a ban on Kayle even if they were Blue side instead of
being able to pick it up in addition to this he has become quite predictable in
his champion choices in recent times making it easier for the opposing teams toprepare against him. While RapidStar’s level of play has still remained at a
high level, he will need to show that he can still improve as a player and
truly become a world class mid player. CloudTemplar is the other player who did
not adapt very well to season 3 changes. Templar’s style of passive jungling in
season 2 was definitely a success but as season 3 changes came about (along
with that Skarnernerf), it was no longer acceptable to be passive as a
jungler. This change in how the game was played definitely affected Templar as
a player because even in season 3, he was playing champions who were good in season
2. After the devastating loss against NJ SWD and GG where Templar was sought
out as the weak point of Frost, Templar has tried greatly to show a change in
his play style in order to match the current meta. However, Templar showed in
his matches that he still hasn’t adapted well to the new playing style and
showed there’s still work to be done. One of the reasons that Frost previously
had a weak laning phase was due to the jungling style of Templar. Templar would
not be the one to make his presence felt all around the map rather his style of
play would depend heavily on counter ganking and making sure that he can grow
as much as he can to become a threat in the long run. It will be interesting to
see how Templar can integrate his old playing style with the current aggressive
meta in order to be successful in his own way. If Templar is unsuccessful
however, look for Frost to struggle in many of their matches against opposition
of equal level.

The loss of Woong

I
know not many people will agree with me when I say this but at the end of his
tenure with Frost Woong was actually a GOOD ADC for the team. After the CJ
Entus matches in the round of 8 Woong was definitely a different player on
Frost and he would often carry his team. This is not to say that he was one of
the best ADCs in the world but he was one of the best ADCs for a team like
Frost where the ADC is role is not given that much emphasis compared to otherteams (as Loco mentioned during a broadcast). By switching from Woong to Hermes,
it will be interesting to see if Frost will have to spend more resources intrying to feed Hermes and in turn how that will affect the whole team’s play as
a unit. In addition to game play, Woong was also the founder of the original
Frost line-up and he would be one of the most knowledgeable players on the
team. It will be interesting to see if Frost’s pick and ban strategies
deteriorate as a result of Woong’s departure or remains the same with the
majority of the players and coaching staff still remaining on the team. This
season will be interesting to see exactly what Woong provided for the team otherthan absorbing all the hate from the fans.

Key PlayerCloudTemplar (Jungle)

As I
mentioned before, Frost is not a team who relies on one single person to carry
their games but in order for their game plan to work out, it also means that
they need everyone to perform their given duties in every game. This is why
ClouidTemplar needs to perform at a level we’re used to seeing from him during
the new season of OGN Champions if Frost doesn’t wish to risk missing the
finals of the Champions stage for the first time in their team history. In
addition to performing well in-game, Templar is also their leader and if he
doesn’t perform well it could start off an adverse chain reaction for the team
mentally which would signal doom for a team that had recently lost one of theirother leaders in the off-season.

Season expectations

Even
with all the doubts you can’t look beyond Frost’s experience and skill level. With
a relatively weak group Frost should have no trouble reaching the RO8 and
depending on match-ups even RO4 but should they meet NJ SWD, Blaze or KT B in the
semis, it may signal the end of Frost’s consecutive appearances in the finals of
the OGN Champions tournament

When Reapered left Blaze, there were many speculations that
he would be forming a new team which was sponsored by a kespa organization. This
team was the first SKT team which
composed of Reapered, H0ro, the former Xenics jungler, and three new comersStarLast, UandMe and MighTiLy. As their first tournament, this team attended
IEM Cologne and they were able to make a grand entrance into the competitiveLoL scene by winning the tournament led by their leader Reapered. Since that
win, everything has been downhill for SKT1. The team seemingly could not win
any match after their big victory in cologne. SKT1 almost every match in the
SWL and they would lose online qualifiers for Katowice as well. The troubling
thing was that in the SWL, they weren’t just losing but they were losing
lopsidedly. By the time IEM world Championships came around, SKT1 changed theirtroubled mid laner MighTiLy for the former PSW Ares member SuNo and the team
was able to finish in the top 4 for the tournament beating CJ Entus Frost in
the process. While SKT1 have shown flashes of brilliance in their matches, they
will need to show up with a completely different performance level to remain
relevant for this year’s OGN Champions the Spring.

The main focus of SKT1 is of course its captain and famous
shot caller Reapered. With his new team, Reapered still loves to utilize the
tactics he used to employ on his former team Blaze. SKT1’s basic strategy
involves around lane swapping for favourable lane match ups and aggressive
towerpushing in all lanes. Unlike his old team however, SKT1 revolves around
small skirmishes rather than full strength team fights with varying degrees of
success. In the Spring Season, look for SKT 1 to put pressure all around the
map at all times if they want to be successful.

Team Strengths

The double edged sword
of the bottom lane

The most unique feature of this SKT1 team definitely comes
from the bot lane duo. The ADC Rave excels in playing champions without an
inherent escape mechanism such as Twitch and MF but even while playing these
champs without an escape skill, he is unbelievably aggressive in his play. Raven
is often not just content with farming in the lane, if given the chance he’ll
even commit into a tower dive to secure a kill. This level of aggression can be
troublesome for the opposition when StarLast is added into the equation. StarLastis a support player who mainly plays ranged supports and when given the
opportunity, he can make top tier plays for his team (3 v 1 kill against SK was
amazing) with his high level of mechanics. While the overly aggressive
playstyle of Raven and StarLast can dominate a lane if they get ahead, they
will also lose a lane miserably if they start to fall behind. It will be interesting
how Reapered thinks of a way to best utilize this aggressive duo who can
potentially carry their games on a given day or fall into the opponent’s trap
and become the weak spot on a different day.

The carry potential of
SuNo

SuNo has demonstrated in his short time with SKT1 that he is
as much a carry potential as his friend and team 2 counter part Faker. Ever
since joining SKT1, SuNo has only had 3 games where he was under deaths and he
only had one game when he had 0 kills. Considering that SKT1’s win rate even
with SuNo is about 50%, those stats show that SuNo could potentially be counted
on to carry his team in every match. SuNo is a player who has the micro skills
and the type of positioning in team fights in order to deal a high amount of
damage without dying. These attributes will allow him to gain kills when given
then opportunity and thus will provide the opportunity for SuNo to carry a game
even if he’s set behind due to an unfavourable matchup

The game callingofReapered

In an AMA, Toyz had stated before that Blaze with Reapered was the scariest tamtoface. That’s not only a testament to Blaze’s overall team strength, but the
fact that Toyz pecifically mentions with Reapered is testament to Reapered’s
game calling abilities. Reapered’s game calling was on full display in theirfirst tournament at cologne when the audio for the team chat was being
streamed. Since Cologne, SKT1 did have mixed results as mentioned but when you
look at games they won, especially SKT1’s game against Najin Shield and CJ
Entus Frost, you can see that Reapered’s game calling is still a weapon to be
feared. The hall mark for a Reapered game call is that when a game is close to
even and there’s a moment where the other team surrenders their slightadvantage, his team is able to seize that opportunity and snowball the game
through. What you notice in these games is that Reapered calls for team fights
and team fight situations as soon as he realizes that his team has an advantage
in some way (position, items, summoners, ults) and during team fights he calls
for the priority targets in order for the fight to be successful. Teams facing
SKT1 will have to be mindful of this fact and realize that they need to prevent
situations where they can potentially throw a game

Team weaknesses

Laning of Reapered
// The stubbornness of Reapered

Reapered is a player who himself has admitted that he’s not
a top tier laner. This sometimes becomes an immense issue for the team because
when he does extremely poorly, his overall judgment tends to falter and his calls
become poorer in quality. The one that suffers the most from this is Beelzehan.
When you watch SKT1 games, you can often see that Beelzehan would trying to be
giving an advantage to Reapered even when there could be better situations
elsewhere. Even when Reapered falls behind by a lot, you can often observe that
Beelzehan is moved to Reapered’s position in order to provide presence for him
however, when facing higher tier teams, this led to the other team going
straight for dragon or other objectives available on the map. In the Spring
season, we can assume that Reapoered will definitely utilize the lane swap in
almost every game but if he gets into 1 v 1 situations, it will be important
for him to hold his own against the likes of ssumday and Shy else his whole
team will suffer.

The second potential weakness stemming from Reapered is that
he can be very stubborn in his playing. In terms of lane matches, if he has it
set in his mind that a particular lane match is essential for the team to have,
then he will make his team swap each time the other team swaps their lanes
regardless of the current situation in the lane. In terms of his lane playing,
if he has the idea that his lane should be a winnable lane but he’s not winning
that lane due to a gank, outplay etc. he will try to force plays to try to get
ahead but these attempts usually tend to end badly for Reapered. For his team
to succeed, Reapered will have to let go of the idea that he has to be the star
of his team (either strategically or carry wise) and act accordingly to the
best interests of his team.

The weak points of
SuNo

Even though SuNo has shown that he has the potential to
carry his team, he has his share of issues to work out. In his competitive matches
with SKT1, SuNo has shown that he will mainly play Karthus, Lux and TF (Jayce
to a degree). We don’t know if this is a tactical decision or not but until he
shows that he can play more champions at a high level, his shallow champion
pool will be a disadvantage for his team. In addition, SuNo tends to have a
selfishplaystyle, what this means is that he will save his skills in order to
last hit enemies. While this nets him kills and could be an important factor in
him carrying a game, there were situations where if he did more damage during the team fight by throwing out Lux ultsat the beginning of a fight, it could have worked out much better for the team
as a whole (Game 1 vs LG-IM 2 for example). If SuNo learns to trust histeammates a bit more and trust them to deal more damage, SKT1 will grow as
whole to become a better team.

Key Player: Beelzehan
(Jungle)

Without a doubt, this is Reapered’s team and how he performs
as a laner and the team captain will determine the fate of SKT1 in this
upcoming Season. That is why it will be important for Beelzehan to take special
care for Reapered in the top lane to mask some of Reapered`s weak laningtendencies. If Beelzehan can successfully get Reapered going, then SKT1 will
play better as a whole. In addition, Beelzehan will be asked to sacrifice the
most for his team and it will be important for him to remain relavant in the
game especially compared to the other team’s jungler by gaining all the exp andgold that he can get. How well Beelzehan can execute his role will definitely
have a direct effect on the outcome the SKT1’s games.

Team expectations

Being in a weak group, I don’t see a scenario where SKT1 doesn’t
finish in the top 4 of their group. However, it’s also hard to imagine SKT1
being in the top 2 of the group with their inconsistent performances and should
they finish 3rdor 4th, they will most likely only be
able to advance to the BO8

As LoL’s popularity grew larger,
many of the kespa organizations were always looking at the right moment to jump
into the LoL scene. KT Rolster, saw its opportunity to jump into the scene when
the StarTale LoL team was disbanded and they picked up its former members to
form KT Rolster’s own LoL team. The first team which was formed, now known as
KT A, was led by the former Najin Shield ADC Hiro and former StartTale player
Vitamin. The rest of the team was assembled with then new comers Reset
(Murloc), Knight of Zero and Wall. After an underwhelming performance in the
Winter season where KT A was overshadowed by their sister team KT B, the team
underwent an overhaul again when Reset left due to personal reasons and Wall
also left. They were replaced by Me5, the former MVP Blue support player and
KakaO the jungler from KT B. With these additions along with the existing group
of players, this year’s KT A team is ready to show that they are as good as
their sister team KT B.

The current rendition of the KT A
team will likely look to cause mini team fights all throughout the game led by
KakO and Zero who will likely play a champion with teleport or a global. Even
when they get to the team fighting stage, it is likely that they will look for
specific engagements where they can catch the opposition off guard instead of
trying to fight a full 5 vs 5 team fight. As a result, look for KT A games tobe action packed with high amount of kills and look for the games to be back
and forth with plenty of throws.

Team Strengths

Ganking force of KakaO

One of the main reasons that KT A
has adapted this new approach of having many mini team fights is the play style
ofKakaO as a jungler. KakaO is a player who excels at ganking, especially lane
ganking. When KakaO first joined tem KT B, he was usually playing a background
role to Score, Ryu and Ragan but as he gathered more competitive experience,
KakaO developed into a reliable playmaker for KT B. Especially in the matches
against Blaze, KakaO showed that he can carry games and during the off-season
he has shown that he has developed further as a player after finally realizing what
he excels in. With his high mechanical skills,
large champion pool and innovative ganking routes, look for KakaO to be making
plays for his new team at any time facet of the game.

Versatility of Zero

Zero is a player who is not talked
about a lot as a top mid laner in the Korean scene but he is definitely one of
the most unique mid laners that Korea has to offer. In his matches Zero has played
at least 10 different champions and some champions on this list include Olaf,
Nunu, Nasus and Fizz. With the competency to play these many champions in a competitive
setting, Zero offers an immense amount of strategic value to his team. Aside from
his champion choices, Zero is also not too shabby when it comes to other
aspects of the game. Even during his amateur days, Zero was known as a good mid
laner, especially in 1 v 1 situations. The jungle upgrade that he received
during the off-season can only help him grow into a more dominant force in the
scene. Zero has already shown during the short time that he played with KakaO,
they have a good synergy between them and this can only translate into better
performances moving forward. During this season of champions it will be
interesting if Zero can establish himself as one of the best mid laners in the
tournament and it will also be interesting to see what new champions he can
bring out from his bag of tricks.

Surprisingly solid bottom lane

So far in their matches, KT A has
shown that their new bottom duo of Hiro and Me5 were stronger than what people
were led to believe. Hiro is a player that has been in the LoL scen for a long
time and while he doesn’t have the high mechanical ability compared to some of
the younger players in the scene, he is rarely found to be doing something he
shouldn’t be doing. Hiro also fits the current meta by playing a style similar
to Score in that he always tries in every team fight to prioritize surviving as
the most important goal instead of forward flashing, forward netting etc. to
grab an extra kill. Me5 is a player that loves to play Lulu and he has shown
that given the opportunity he can change the course of a team fight with a
great Ult used either to save someone or used offensively as a knock up. More
importantly, he and Hiro seemed to be on the same page when they were laning
together. Since Hiro is a player who isn’t overly aggressive in the lane, Me5
was seen to play accordingly in the lane and allowing Hiro to just cs in the
lane. While this duo of Hiro and Me5 may not make the flashiest plays in the
game, their solid consistent play will be a valuable asset for the team going
forward.

Team weaknesses

Vulnerability of Vitamin

Vitamin is a player who’s also
been in the LoL scene for a long time but he is definitely a player who has not
been able to make his mark in the LoL scene. Part of Vitamin’s problem is that
he has no champions that he really dominates with and while he can have one or
two games where he can dominate, the other times he’s largely kept under
control and his influence on the game is very minimal. As such, Vitamin may be
sought after as the weakest link on the team and teams facing KT A could
potentially look to exploit this weakness. The weakness of Vitamin also limits
the team fighting potential of KT A and therefore, the strength of KT A goes
down exponentially in long drawn out games where the global gold remains
generally even. During this season of Champions winter, Vitamin needs to show
that he can go toe to toe with the likes of Flame, MakNooN and Impact while
showing that he can stay ahead of the likes of Cheonju and Homme. Should he not
be up to task for this, it may the last season of OGN Champions that we see
Vitamin in competitive play.

Suspect long game management

The mark of a good team is not
only that they have solid members at every position on the team or that they
can team fight very well. A good team must know how to manage a long drawn out
game and grind out a win in these situations. So far KT A has not shown that
given an even game, they can win by managing the game and going into 5 v 5 team
fight situations. Having more time to practice will remedy this flaw somewhat
but fundamentally, they need their tank line to be able to perform really well
in late game situations. This means with KakaO usually playing the role of the
anti-carry, Vitamin will need to learn to become a better initiator and a
peeler for his carries. Having a team like KT B to scrim against will
definitely help a lot with this situation as unlike KT A, the KT B team
performs well in team fight situations led by solid plays from ssumday and
inSec. If KT A can learn from their sister team KT B, the KT Rolster teams will
be as feared as the CJ Entus teams.

Key player: KakaO (Jungle)

Given the team’s flaws, it will be
important for KakaO to create advantageous situations especially for his solo
laners so that his team can get an advantage which they can snowball and win
during the mid- game phase. Being such a great ganker, he can create unexpected
situations at any given moment and the amount of presence he can exert in any
given game will directly correlate to the amount of success this season’s KT A
team will have.

Team expectations

KT A can definitely finish 3rd
in their group but if they do, they will have a high chance of meeting CJ Frost
or a repeat of last year’s quarterfinals match-up which could signal a quick
exit for KT A.

Unlike their sister team MVP Ozone, team MVP Blue has never
had success in the OGN Champions tournament. They finished last in the group
stage the two times they have competed in the tournament and they have always
been looked at as one of the weakest team in the competition. After performing
a complete overhaul of the roster during the offseason which saw Sunchip leave
off to the army, Kangqui going into broadcasting and the rest of the members
being picked up by KT, CJ and Najin the MVP Blue team picked up a trio of players
from the former GSG roster. Along with Cheonju, Easyhoon and Sense, the MVP
team also picked up the young and talented AD Deft and a former RoMG member
F.Lahm to complete the roster. With a strong showing in the OGN Club masters
tournament and in the Battle Royale, team MVP Blue is definitely ready to show
the world that they can compete with the best teams in Korea.

Team Strengthes

Alex Ichhoon

When people talk about the best mid laners in Korea, you can
never leave off Easyhoon on that list. If you brought his name up 6 months ago,
people would have questioned your sanity but since then he has become the
hottest mid player in the Korean LoL scene. Arguably the player who has
improved the most since the start of last season, Easyhoon has shown us that onany given night, he can carry his team to victory. With his plethora of
champion choices he can always keep the opponent guessing as to which champion
he would use in that game and due to his potent ability on his signature heroes
Karthus, Ryze and TF he may force the opponent to use their ban or pick
champions like Ryze to prevent Easyhoon access to these champions. Aside from his
solid fundamentals, what Easyhoon really excels in is his roaming timing. Whetherit would be roaming as TF, using Teleport or just walking, you can always count
on Easyhoon to be at the right place at the right time as either a backup to
dives or if they themselves are executing a dive. It is no coincidence that
Easyhoon was involved in almost 70% of his team’s kills since the start of OGN
winter.

Most creative minds in
the scene

Everyone remembers the last game of NLB winter championships
when the former GSG team went for the famous 4 mid heimerdinger strategy to win
however the one thing that most people don’t realize is the ingenious pick ban strategy
which allowed GSG to be able to pull off this composition. GSG was blue side
and during the pick ban stage they did not ban Shen, TF and Khazix while
banning Nunu. With their first pick they took TF while CJ Entus picked up Shen
and Khazix. With the next picks GSG took Caitlyn (surprise pick given Nunu ban) and
Olaf while CJ picked up Ez and Sona. With their final picks GSG picked up Blitz
and Heimer completing their strategy while CJ picked up Cho and the rest is
history. The amazing preparation on GSG’s part was that they led CJ Entus to
pick “OP” champions who were very bad at clearing minions in the early game
(Shen pre sunfire cape, Kha pre W evolution, Ez) while picking up Olaf (one of
the best lane pushers) early as the solo laner. With a terrible composition tostop the amazing push ability provided by the Cait Heimer combo along with
picks from the yordle trap blitz pull combo, GSG was able to push mid all the
way and end the game by the 19thminute mark. This game was a
testament to the former GSG members’ ability to analyze their opponents and
execute a strategy flawlessly and one has to believe that this ability will be
useful for the new MVP Blue team to survive in their group. Even if MVP Blue
don’t do all that well in the group, I have no doubts that they can be a
hellish team to prepare against due to the sheer brilliance of their
strategies.

Video credits to ESL Asia

Team weaknesses

Cheonju

Cheonju is probably best known as being the best rumble in
Korea. While his rumble in undeniably top tier, when that champion is taken
away from him his performance level drops noticeably. One of the reasons for
this is that Cheonju has a limited Champion pool which makes it easy for the
opposition to prepare a counter against him. Adding to the fact that Cheonjumainly played ADC in the NLB doesn’t help with the fact that Cheonju could be
singled out as the weakness of MVP Blue. The encouraging sign is that recently,
Cheonju has shown that his champion pool has expanded and that he can play
champions other than rumble at a high level as well but it still remains to be
seen if he can keep up this level of performance when the stakes are higher
than before.

The Ups and Downs of Sense

Sense aka Solo aka ChuNyang was probably considered the best
player on the former RoMG team when they beat Azubu Frost during the Summer
season. There were quite a bit of rumours that several pro organizations were looking
into employing his services for their team. Ultimately, he finally became prowith the current MVP team. There may be reasons why some teams decided to stay
away from Sense including his well-documented stage fright (when he first
competed in a lan tournament) but if I had to pick the main reasons why I would
have stayed away from Sense compared to other junglers, it’s his consistency
and decision making. On a good day, Sense can play very solid and be a play
making force with his arsenal of favourite champions like Vi and Elise but on a
bad day he simply becomes a feeder on this team and his team proceeds to get
dominated by the opposition. The root cause for this consistency issues is that
he generally lacks top tier decision making skills especially when he decides
to initiate in a fight. Often you would see Sense engaging in a fight only to
have the other team and he dies. Other times you could see Sense engaging in
teamfights which ends disadvantageously for his team. These issues arise from
several reasons but the oddity in his pathing and his positioning before
entering team fights is usually the cause of his downfall. Now that he’s in a
team house and is on a professional training regimen, it will be interesting to
see how many of these problems he can fix through studying his own match
replays and figuring out his playing habits.

The inexperienced botlane

When you look at the bottom lane for MVP Blue, they are the
only team to feature a bot lane duo without a competitive LoL career. While
this may not seem like a big issue considering they showed some great plays
during the off-season, they showed some flaws in their playing as well. In
their matches Deft demonstrated that he possessed mechanical skills which may
be able to rival his teammate imp’s but more often than not he showed overly
excessive plays which sometimes led to great kills but sometime also led him to
his death. If the other teams pick up on his bloodlust tendencies, then there
could be situations where he gets purposely baited by the opposing team. FLahmthe support, showed that he is a good Lulu player and one day he may be able to
challenge Lustboy as the best Lulu in the world but in his current state, he
showed one fatal flaw which prevents him from being in that discussion. FLahmwould often utilize skills at the wrong timings in a team fight situation. For
a support player, this could mean the difference between saving someone or
letting them die. The other problem that both of these players exhibited wasthat when they were forced to anything other than Lulu or Ezreal, theireffectiveness decreased slightly. However considering that they are new to the
professional LoL scene (especially Deft who is really young), this duo
definitely has the room to improve.

Key Player: Sense
(Jungler)

With Cheonju not being quite at the top tier level, MVP Blue
will need Sense to perform at his highest level every night. MVP Blue is a team
that desperately needs a solid tank line so that their carries can deal the
most amount of damage possible in team fight situations. If a strong tank line
can be established then it should tremendously improve MVP Blue subpar team
fighting ability.

Team expectations

While it’s hard to overlook MVP Blue’s impressive
performances in the off-season, it was basically all on online tournaments and
as Najin Shield has shown us in the past online achievements do not equate tolan success. With question marks across the board, this team could easily end
up being a Easyhoon one man team. If MVP Blue were on the other group I could
have seen them advancing but in this group they will have trouble escaping last
place.

The famous e-sports organization SK Telecom T1 gained theirfame through their strong showings in the StarCraft scene. Led by the legendary
Boxer, SKT T1 has always been known for their strong Terran players and they
made their mark in the e-sports scene by winning many tournaments. With the
announcement that SC1 would hold its last proleague, the SKT organization
looked at the possibility of jumping into the ever-expanding LoL scene. They
started off by acquiring Reapered who mutually terminated his contract with
Blaze just before the Winter season and also acquiring the former StarTale
junglerkkoma as their coach. If SKT T1’s first team was built by Reapered, the
second team was built by the two coaches kkoma and L.i.e.S. Through many hours
and days spent on recruiting, SKT T1’s second team was able to assemble one of
the most talented rosters in the scene.

The SKT2 line-up is headlined by the former number one
ranker in Korea, Faker. Faker was definitely a commodity in the off-season and
there were many rumours of Faker being picked up by teams who were looking for
a mid laner. Fortunately for SKT, kkoma was quick to act and contact Faker who
was trying to get a sponsor with his amateur team. The other highly talent
individual on this roster who has never seen competitive play is Piglet. Piglet
is a player who was cited by many pro players (such as imp) to be a good ADC
player and he was a consistent top 50 ranked player ever since season 2. The 3
remaining members of the roster have had some competitive exposure. Impact the
toplaner is the most well-known player on the team being a former member of
Xenics Storm. PoohManDu is the other well-known player on this team and he used
to be the support player for GSG and he also used to be a famous player in the
Chaos scene with the former RoMG team (WC3 DOTA variant). Finally bengi was a
member of BBT (the former MVP Red) before he joined SKT2.

Team Strengths

Talent of the new generation players

People normally refer to players who were high ranked players
on the NA server as the first generation pro players. Now with the Korean
server being in service for just over a year, the popularity of LoL in Korea
has skyrocketed and this has led to many talented young individuals being
discovered by the pro teams. If a team like CJ Frost is an assembly of talent
firstgen players, this new SKT2 team is a showcase of the talented second genplayers who gained fame inside the KR server.

There are 3 members of the team who can be described in this
fashion and it is Faker, Piglet and bengi. Not surprisingly all 3 of these
players have very noticeable features in their playing. All of these players
were cited by many as the top 3 amateurs in their respective positions who’ve reached
the pro playing level. All 3 of these individuals also showtop tier levelmechanics and amazing game sense which allows them to make flashy plays. Finally,
all these individuals have shown to have a large champion pool in theirarsenal.

While the ADC role is quite limited in their choice of
champions, you can see that in ranked Piglet actually only plays AD 60% of the
time (with Lee being his third(!) most played) showing his flexibility for
other roles. When he gets to play the ADC roles, what strikes me most about
Piglet is that his laning phase is quite balanced meaning that he knows when to
harass and when to farm.

Bengi the jungler is probably best known for his Shen, but
aside from Shen he definitely loves the high mobility, high skill cap champions
who can carry the game out of the jungle (lee, zed, shaco). The most impressive
thing to note about bengi’s playing style is that he is very fearless in his
plays and as a jungler this could be a good asset since a moment of indecision
could be a huge difference between a successful dive or a failed attempt.

Finally, Faker the midlaner is known for playing anything
and everything in the mid lane. He can bring out a traditional AP such as Ryze
or a rarely used AP such as Syndra. He can also play the traditional AD mageslike Kha or play an unconventional character like AP Ezreal and carry the game.
When you watch Faker play, what you can notice is the high accuracy on his
skill shots. The other thing to note about Faker is that even if he’s doing bad
in the lane, you can always count on him to rack up the kill count, especially
in a team fight situation.

Perhaps the final reason that people do have so much
anticipation for this trio is that other members of this so called “new
generation”, such as ssumday, Kakao and Loray have all shown that their high
individual skill level can translate into success at the highest level.

The Unknown

Being a completely new team has down sides to it but it also
has various good sides. One good thing about being an unknown team is that the
team’s playing style remains unknown. It’s
probably fair to say that SKT2 has had the least amount of exposure competitively
out of the twelve teams and with this advantage they may just gain enough leverage
to gain draws in their tough group.

The other advantage that this team has as I mentioned is the
inherent versatility in the team in terms of picks and bans. Due to the fact
that all of their players can play a variety of champions at a high level, you
can never know what kind of a team comp this SKT2 team will throw your way. Especially
in the current format if the SKT2 team prepares a surprise tactic for one of
their two matches then the opposing team can easily be caught out for the first
game which would put them under a huge strategic and mental disadvantage. The
other notable thing to mention is that during an interview, the SKT coach
mentioned that in a blind pick setting the
5 mid strategy of GSG may seem *normal*compared to what the SKT2 team could potentially showcase.

Team Weaknesses

How will this thecast of players play as a team?

From what we’ve seen so far, the SKT2 team did not exhibit
many fatal flaws in their line-up but their matches were against amateur
opponents thus it was unclear how the team would fare as a whole against a
strong opponent. It could happen to be that the team wins out the laning phase
due to their individual abilities but without the proper game managing skills,
these advantages could be all for naught. In addition, due to the fact that their team
consists of two main damage dealers who are competingin the highest level for
the first time, it remains to be seen if they can shy away from their soloqhabits in such a short time span to make the appropriate sacrifices for the
team and follow the team calls instead of going to farm. The other suspect of
their game is their team fight ability when the teams are even in ability. It's
unclear if the tanks (especially bengi) will be able to decide exactly when to
peel and when to go in for the opposite carries instead of always just charging
in for the opposite carries. Another interesting thing to note is the bot lane
synergy. ManDu has been known to play unconventional supports like Leblanc but
other than that he rarely plays normal supports like Sona or Taric. We’ll have
to see if Piglet can synergize well with the unconventional ManDu.

Are the kids really
alright?

We know that the young players on this team have great
individual skills and confidence in their abilities but could that potentially
backfire on them? Countless times, you could see players making impossible
lookingplays which end up being disadvantageous but they do it anyways simply because
it’s “worth”. The SKT2 team better hope
that their young players don’t feel like they’re superheroes and can pull off
plays that they imagine in their heads. The other important aspect of the being
a professional LoL player is the mental aspect of the game. Everything will be
all good and well when they`rewinning but what will happen when they lose and
worse if they get completely outplayed by the opposition. Will the young
players have what it takes to recuperate in a high pressure environment toperform well after devastating losses or will they crumble under the lime lightand never live up to expectations? All these question marks remain to with this
team.

What about the oldermembers of the team

It’s true that Impact along with Daydream was the best player
on a weak Xenics Storm team but it’s unclear if that will translate into Impact
being relevant in higher level play. Impact has always been a professional
player ever since his support days and he was always a consistent performer. Last
season in the NLB, he showed that he could be a consistent force in the top
lane as well. What is worrisome is that Impact is probably the player who will
be asked to sacrifice (in terms of choosing champs, farming, etc.) most for the
team since he along with the support have the least carry potential on this
team. This could potentially be a dangerous proposition for Impact. If he is sacrificed
for the greater good of the team, he could be walking the fine line between
staying relevant or irrelevant in every game.

The other elder member of the team ManDu is probably the
biggest question mark on the team. Aside from the well documented fact that he
does not play conventional supports, his supporting ability is average from
what he’s shown us. In the old GSG team, he demonstrated that on a good day he
can play a decent Blitz and make plays for the team (which should bode well for
him considering Thresh is OP) and generally speaking he prefers to play the
aggressive kill lane type of champs. Other than the kill lane champs however,
it still remains to be seen how he fares on normal support champs.

Key Player Faker
(Mid)

If Faker wanted to test his skills against the best mids in
Korea, he got his wish when the groups were drawn. In his group he will have to
go against Ssong, Ambiton, Zero, Easyhoon and dade. All of those players are
experienced, highly skilled and they all possess the ability to carry theirteam to victory at any given opportunity. If Faker can prove that he can be in
their league every game then SKT2 will have a good chance of surviving their
group ahead of the MVP teams and KTA but should he look like if he’s out of
their league, this year’s SKT2 team will not avoid being in the cellars of
group A. SKT2’s season depends on the shoulders of their super rookie.

Season
expectations

While they look tremendously talented and ready to cause an
uproar in the scene, their group is extremely difficult to compete in. Should
they get into the playoffs however, they can potentially win against the
opponents from the weaker group B and become this year’s KTB.

Najin shield was one of the oldest existing team in the
Korean league of legends scene. When the former clan known as Extreme Dive
Gaming was picked up by the Najin corporation (who mainly focused on Tekken pro
gamingleague) they became one of the pioneers in the Korean LoL scene. Of
course, none of the members from the original Shield line-up is now on the
roster with the fan favourite MOKUZA (personal favourite as well, gotta love
that red hair) retiring due to illness and HooN being released from the team
(vinylcat is technically still on the team but not really). With all these
changes, Shield gathered a group of players who would bring them back to theirglory days. We will now see in the Spring Season if Shield is indeed an
un-upgradeable Doran’s Shield or a more effective and upgradeable Aegis of the
Legion when the time comes.

The Shield line-up is anchored by Expession, arguably the
best player in the world with the least amount of recognition. Wolf, is the
other player remaining from last season’s Shield line-up and while Wolf may not
be able to consistently pull off amazing plays every game, he is a reliable player
and a dependable support with room to improve. Out of the trio that was
recently acquired by Shield, the player with the most amount of pedigree
definitely has to be Locodoco. Locodoco is a celebrity in the LoL scene playing
AD for MiG Frost, StarTale and also playing support for a stint with CLG.NA
(~~rumours are that his R key was broken during this time~~). What Loco brings
to the team is his vast experience, knowledge, game-calling ability and his
~~craziness~~. NoFe was the former jungler for MVP Blue and perceived by the
Korean community as being “forever suffering” on a bad team. This season will
show if the so called expenofe combo will shine. Last but not least, Save, the
player formerly known as yellowoutis probably the player that not many people
know about. With limited exposure in the competitive scene, it would be
accurate to say that his current showings were below average at best.

Without the fluidity in their play compared to the other
teams who have had the luxury of keeping their roster mostly intact, Shield
will need a good overall performance from their entire roster to regain theirreputation as one of the most feared teams in Korea.

Team Strengths

*One of the best top
laners in the world

Expession has quietly garnered a reputation as being one of
the best in the world but unfortunately, he did not have the chance to show off
his skills in the big stage as of yet. The reason that Expession is rated so
highly by not only his colleagues but his fans as well comes from hiscompleteness as a player. Whether it would be csing, making trades, champion
pool or team fighting Expession has the ability to excel in all areas.
Furthermore, unlike his counterpart MakNooN, you can often see that Expessionusually plays very calmly and generally has good decision making. If I had to
compare him to a different player, I would say that Expession reminds me most
of Ambition in that he is one of the most consistent performers at the highest
level. With the changes in Season 3 increasing the influence of the top lane,
look for Expession to carry his team night in and night out.

The brain of
Locodoco

Being a member of MENSA, it is no surprise that Locodoco
used to be the strategy maker and shot-caller for MiG Frost. This is what he
brings as a player to Najin Shield as well. Not only is he a good ADC (as seen
in the SWL), the other merits that he provides for his team are immense. Often
you see games which are decided by picks and bans which is why theory crafting
andstrategizing is as important as practicing to improve mechanics. In Season
3 especially where picks and bans are not as stagnant as it was in Season 2, I
definitely expect a new and innovative strategy to come out from the mind of
Locodoco (Thresh Fid Noc was definitely very neat to watch but the
co-ordination was lacking). The other factor that he provides for Shield is
that Loco is an experienced veteran on a team composed of members that has
never been to the playoffs in the OGN Champions tournament. Should he once
again act as the shot-caller of his team, he will be able to show us his
trademark inhumane speech speed during shot-calling and provide quality calls
for Shield.

The other interesting thing to note about Loco is that every
support he has ever laned with/practiced with have become a top tier support. First
it was Madlife, then it was Mafa, and after it was Mata for a short while and
now it will be interesting to see if Wolf also develops into a top tier support
player.

Team weaknesses

NoFe in No Gain

It’s weird to list someone who’s been on the roster for a
short amount of time to be the team’s weakness but NoFe has demonstrated that
potential in the SWL matches (in the 2ndgame against WE for
example). In his previous team MVP Blue, it is true that NoFe and the bottom
lane was the only lanes to fare decently but it wasn’t as if NoFe could carry a
game single-handedly like inSec. The problem with NoFe that I notice is that he
plays at his best when playing a support jungler (with his best champ probably
being Chogath) but the current state of the game isn’t really suited for these
support type junglers. In addition, his mechanics also don’t seem to be at the
top level (partially due to his age) which limits the champion pool even
further since he wouldn’t be as effective on a micro-intensive champion. NoFeis in no means a bad jungler but he’s quite ordinary. To live up to his former
title “forever suffering” he will have to prove that he and Expession can be
the solid tankers that Shield imagined when they first acquired him.

Save = Mightily?

After disappointing showings against SKT1,
some people were joking around that Mightily just changed his name and joined
Shield. To be fair, Save is probably better than Mightily in terms of mechanics
but from what he’s shown Save lacks in csing ability. Each game that he’s
played in the SWL, Save would constantly be behind on farm compared to the
other mid laner and in competitive play, this is a huge disadvantage. In
addition to his lack lustercsing ability, he seemed to be lacking the required
decision making skills to make the right plays. In his matches Save would often
be taking weird pathing and sometimes deciding to stay in fights for too long when
he could have got out all of which probably stem from soloq habits. The good
news is that, Save’s only had 3 competitive matches and he probably can improve
quite a bit but he better improve a lot and improve really fast because the
competition isn’t going to wait for him to improve before singling him out as
Shield’s weak spot.

Key Player: Save (Mid)

When you think about all the great teams in the world, they
have one thing in common their mid player is world class. That’s just a
testament to how much influence a midlaner can have in the outcome of a game
(It’s a feature of all MOBA’s due to the strategic vantage point served by the
mid lane). Unfortunately, at his current state, Save is probably ranked near
thelast for all mid laners in the tournament (along with HooN ironically) but
if he can improve upon his flaws, which he himself is probably well aware of,
he can be an asset to the team. With how the team is set up right now, Save
doesn’t have to force himself to carry night in and night out since he has Loco
andExpession but he will have to not fall behind the enemy mid laner. In this
way he could play a role which he showed during his match against WE when he
didn’t fall behind terribly bad against Misaya’s Vlad as Zed and was given the
duty of split pushing. As he’s shown that he can play champs such as Zed and
TF, having Loco and Expession carry while Save goes to split push could verywell become one of Shield’s most used strategies during the tournament.

Team Expectations

Shield’s recent streak of disappointing showings could verywell continue if their match against SKT1 is any sign of things to come but I
believe that they have some great potential on their roster. Their season could
really depend on their first few matches. If they win, they could potentially
be at the top of their group just like MVP White of last year. However, with
the flaws in their team I really can’t see them going past the round of 8
should they reach there.

The MVP progaming team was a household name even before
their LoL team was formed due to their successes in the SC2 scene (DRG OP).
However, when they announced that they would launch not one but 3 teams in the
League of Legends scene many fans were excited to see what kind of a product
they would produce.However, due to
unfortunate circumstances, MVP Red was disbanded even before they could compete
in a single OGN Champions tournament and MVP blue ended up being the only team
to compete during the Summer season (they lost all 3 games to finish last intheir group).In the meanwhile, MVP
white competed in the Summer season of NLB and won giving them an automatic bid
in the Winter season of OGN the Champions.In the group stage, MVP White performed admirably exceeding all
expectations and finishing second in their group. However, they were
overmatched in their quarterfinal set against NJSW and also bowed out to NJSHD
in the NLB ending their season. As soon as the season ended, MVP White along
with MVP Blue underwent complete overhauls. First, the team was no longer
called MVP White but they were now sponsored by Ozone to become MVP Ozone.
Second they released their mid player Mima as well as their support Min9 and
brought in the former CJ Entus mid lanerdade as well as former MVP Red/BBT
support player Mata. The result of a revamped roster was remarkable as MVP
Ozone won 2:0 against TPA and while they did lose 0:2 to NJSW, both of the
games were incredibly close. These results showed that mvp Ozone may become a
new powerhouse in the Spring Season.

Team Strengths

Ultra aggressive botlane

If I had to pick a player who has improved the most
throughout the Winter season and before the Spring season I would no doubt
choose imp along with his MVP teammate easyhoon. Imp has shown that he has
phenomenal mechanics along with his super aggressive play in lane and in team
fights. Imp is a player who’s not afraid to flash forward to secure the kill
while this does get him into sticky situations from time to time, it works out
most of the time. A bot lane however is not complete without the support. Mataand imp has shown a high level of synergy ever since Mata’s arrival and with
Mata as a definite upgrade over their previous support small brain and min9,
MVP Ozone’s bot lane should be able to compete with any duo in the tournament.

DanDy

Being one of the
original members of MVP White, DanDy has long been engrainedinto the memory of
many fans being the best member of the team. However now that the level of his
teammates had risen considerably, it was yet to be seen if he was just a
mediocre player on a bad team or if he indeed was a good player being bogged by
bad teammates. In the SWL, he definitely showed the world that he wasn’t just a
mediocre player but he had the right to be in the discussion of one of the best
junglers in Korea. Against TPA, DanDy single handedly won game 1 and even game
2 by out jungling one of the best junglers in the world Lilballz. The most
impressive thing about DanDy’s playing was that he played as if he had a map
hack on and he was able to perform successful counter ganks one after the other
as well as successful counter jungling time after time. With aggressive
junglingbeing the trend, it’ll be interesting to see how much counter gankingprowess DanDy can exercise during the Spring Season and if he and team MVP
Ozone can finally achieve something in the OGN Champions tournament.

**Team Weaknesses**

Inconsistent
performance of dade

dade was the number one ranked player on the Korean server
for a long time before the original CJ Entus picked him up as their mid lane
player. So far in his career, he has shown that on a good day he can play at
the highest level but on a bad day, you wouldn’t even be able to notice if dadewas in the game. Perhaps this inconsistency was why MVP Ozone first tried to
test a controversial mid lane player known as Crumble Cookies (the IWD of
Korea, received a 100 yr ban) instead of dade. What’s most frustrating about
dade is that he has the mechanics, the champion pool and the competitive
experience to be one of the best mid laners but even when he’s having a good
game, he can make a really bad mistake that’s costs his team the game (Khazix
game against Frost, Jayce game against NJSW in the SWL). Needless to say MVP
Ozone will need the good dade if they have any hope of advancing further than
the RO8 this time around.

The ever ordinary top
laner Homme

In most cases, ordinary is usually good enough but in the
case of the Korean top lane, ordinary will usually make you look really bad. If
such was the case for Lpanda last season, then this may become the case for
Homme this season. Homme by no means is a bad player, he can farm, he has a
decent champion pool and usually he doesn’t feed terribly. However, the problem
is that he has never shown the potential to be a difference maker. In the game
against NJSW, if Homme could have limited the damage done by PraY much the same
way PDD and illusion were able to, there’s no doubt that MVP would have won 2:0
to NJSW instead of losing by that same score. Unfortunately for MVP Ozone,
Homme would always get decimated before he even had a chance to go in on PraY
every time because he would be very predictable in trying to go after PraY
which led to successful disengagements one after the other, separating the
initiating tanks from the rest of the team each time. Homme will need to
improve his game or risk being the new star for Monte and doa’s Agony series.

Bad late game
management

The
current MVP Ozone in many ways remind me of the old NJ SWD in its infancy. In
their lane phase they can usually get ahead thanks to the aggressive playscoming out from the mid lane and the botlane along with some well-timed ganks.
The problem arises when it comes for time for team fighting to occur. They
showed that even with a moderate lead, MVP Ozone would engage in team fights only
to come out even or losing in their matches against TPA and NJ SWD. In the
latter match, their continual disadvantage in team fights was what cost them
the victory in both matches. This may be a result of having a new roster as the
team is probably still taking time to figure out their respective roles in
different types of situations. Regardless, if they truly want to be recognized
as an elite team, then they must learn to snowball their advantages to victory

Key Player: dade (Mid)

Even with their influence being reduced in Season 3, mid players can still decide the outcome of a game more often than not. This is the reason why dade is cruicial for MVP Ozone’s success this season. With a less than stellar top liner, dade has to be the backbone of this team along with imp and DanDy to be a reliable force every match. Dade has already shown on his previous team which eerily resembles his current team (mediocre top, good jungle and good bot lane) that how well he performs is closely correlated to how well his team performs. As such it will be interesting if he can live up to expectations and show everyone why he was the former number 1 ranked player in Korea.

Season
expectations

MVP Ozone is a tough team to judge while I do believe they are one of the better teams around, it’s uncertain if they can compete with the top teams yet. If they can replicate what they did during the group stage last year, then I do believe they can go further than last year should they get a favourable match-up (team style wise). However, with a field as deep as this year’s Champion’s Spring Team MVP Ozone may be the tough luck miss-outs in the group stage. I expect 3 ~ 5th spot in the group stage for them.